


communication issues

by demonsorceress



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: AU, F/F, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-05
Updated: 2014-11-05
Packaged: 2018-02-24 06:46:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,621
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2571986
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/demonsorceress/pseuds/demonsorceress
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jemma and Skye hook up. Jemma gives Skye her number. Skye says she's going to call. She doesn't. A month later, they bump into each other again, and Skye has a chance to prove that it wasn't her fault at all.</p>
            </blockquote>





	communication issues

**Author's Note:**

> I got this idea out of nowhere when I was reading an AU list and got so insanely excited about it. Overall I'm really proud of how this turned out, so I hope you like it! :)

What makes Jemma give up on buying her coffee isn’t the long line, it’s the sight of the person currently ordering when she looks down the line. She recognizes the woman immediately.

"Skye. No last name, just Skye," was how the brunette introduced herself when they met over a month ago. That’s how it started.

Even though Jemma was a bit tipsy, the amount of alcohol she’d ingested wasn't nearly enough to erase the memory of that night. She remembers everything, from Skye’s flirty smile as she took a seat in the stool next to Jemma’s at the bar, to the delicious taste of Skye’s lips against hers.

She also remembers how Skye asked for her number, and stuffed the small piece of paper where Jemma wrote it into her pocket. And then never called.

In different circumstances, Jemma probably wouldn't have been so surprised. It could've been just a one-night stand, she wouldn't mind not ever seeing that person again.

Except Skye gave her more than enough reason to expect the call. The night was wonderful, at least for Jemma, though she'd been certain Skye enjoyed it as much as she did.

They had such a great conversation at the bar, and Skye seemed truly interested in getting to know Jemma. When Jemma apologized about going on for too long about her own life, Skye immediately assured her she would gladly listen to Jemma talk for hours and hours. When Skye pulled her into a kiss, Jemma wasn’t surprised; she saw it coming and she couldn’t wait. They didn't make an effort to hide they were definitely attracted to each other, and after a couple of hours hanging out at the bar and then hooking up in Skye's car, they ended up in Jemma's place later. The night was pretty incredible in every aspect.

It's important to mention that Skye was undoubtedly one of the most gorgeous women Jemma had ever been interested in. She was clearly attractive at first sight when she approached Jemma at the bar, and the way she'd suddenly grin while Jemma was talking was so damn cute. Even better when she was laying on the bed, wrapped in Jemma's sheets, her clothes scattered around the floor, messy hair spread across the pillow.

Jemma doesn't understand why Skye would ask for her phone if she didn't intend to call. She was the one who said she wanted to see Jemma again, and then pressed one last kiss to Jemma's lips before leaving her house early in the morning. It would've been less upsetting if she'd shown no interest in meeting again at all, rather than misleading Jemma into waiting for her to get in contact.

Anyway, Jemma would rather spare herself of the embarrassment in case Skye saw her, so she just steps out of the place. There are plenty of other shops she can go to.

However, as Jemma is walking away from the shop, she hears fast footsteps behind her and a familiar voice calls out her name.

She whirls around to find no one other than Skye hurrying after her. For a moment, Jemma feels like a 14-year-old who was just caught awkwardly hiding from her crush.

Jemma rubs the back of her neck as she waits for Skye to approach her. Skye stuffs her hands in the pockets of her coat when she stops in front of Jemma, and lowers her head for a moment before looking back up at the other woman.

"Hey," she says softly, a bright smile on her lips. Before Jemma can answer, she continues: "Are you busy now or something?" She points in the direction of the shop behind her. "I just ordered coffee, do you want to maybe get back there and sit with me so that we can talk for a bit?"

Jemma is caught off guard. Skye was the one who didn't call and now she wants to talk?

Regardless, Jemma is curious and she thinks it's worth it giving it a shot just to see what Skye wants. What’s the worst that can happen?

Well, now that Jemma thinks about it, Skye could be married and that’s why she couldn’t call Jemma and perpetuate the affair. But that’s like, worst case scenario.

She silently follows Skye back into the coffee shop and they sit across from each other on a table by the glass windows. Jemma is grateful Skye suggested they talked there because the cold, dry wind of the winter makes it unbearable to be outside. Also, the winter means Skye is wearing a beanie, which makes her unfairly more adorable. She looks just as beautiful as Jemma remembers. Damn.

"So, um, how have you been doing?" Skye starts, and she seems a bit uneasy. They're both well aware of the elephant in the room.

The bitter 14-year-old inside Jemma kind of wants to answer "I'm fine, still waiting for that phone call". She's trying to be an adult about this but apparently she's an adult who really wanted this other adult in front of her to call.

"Fine," Jemma replies. "Normal, I guess. Constantly busy with work." She recalls mentioning to Skye back in that night that her job as a scientist leaves her with very little free time. She doesn't know what else to say, really. "What about you?"

It's really awkward to engage in this sort of conversation—the one you have with people you see once in a while so you talk about irrelevant things for a bit just to be polite—with someone you've slept with. Also, Jemma's eyes keep drifting to Skye's lips.

"Ah, not much going on, my life is boring," Skye says jokingly. Jemma is trying desperately to come up with something to say when Skye looks down to avoid her gaze and confesses, “I’ve thought quite a lot about you in the past month, actually.” She focuses on her coffee, her fingers dancing around the cup. “It’s nice to see you again.”

She looks up again and gives Jemma a heartwarming smile, but her eyes say something else.

Jemma can’t help but bring up the topic that’s making her so confused by the way Skye is acting. “We could’ve met again sooner, you know.”

Jemma notices Skye’s baffled expression for a second, but the other woman keeps going right away as if she won’t be able to say everything she wants if she doesn’t do it all at once. “I wanted to tell you that, um… I really enjoyed that night we were together. Not only the sex, I swear- _not_ what I meant, though that part was pretty amazing as well if you ask me.” She shakes her head. “My point is, everything was _really_ good, and I don’t know about you but I kind of thought you’d liked it too.”

Even though Jemma wants to immediately tell Skye that she feels the same way about their night—not only the sex, though she agrees that certainly deserves an honorable mention—, she chooses to voice her biggest thought at the moment first.

“Well then why didn’t you call me?”

Her attempt to sound casual as if she’s just curious to know Skye’s reasons fails epically, and the bitterness in her voice is way more noticeable than intended. Surprisingly, Skye’s face morphs into shock as her jaw drops slightly. She arches an eyebrow, almost in a daring way.

“Funny you should say that,” she counters, a startling amount of snark in her voice, “because I tried several times. But you gave me the wrong number.”

Jemma’s eyes widen. “That’s absurd,” she says with a dry chuckle. Either Skye is pulling some sort of weird joke or trying to get a second chance by shifting the blame to Jemma. “I can guarantee you I did not do that.”

Why the hell would Jemma purposely give the wrong number to someone whom she had a great time with?

Skye frowns. “How come?” She sounds just as stubborn about this as Jemma, which is slightly concerning. And weird. “I tried calling you _many_ times and the number doesn’t exist. You know what, I think the paper you gave me is still here.”

She searches her purse until she finds the small piece of crinkled paper where Jemma wrote her number. Jemma tries to focus on the main issue in hand, rather than the fact that Skye didn’t throw that away in a month.

“See it for yourself,” she says, handing Jemma the paper.

Jemma remembers when she woke up the morning after and found Skye already getting dressed to leave. She was only in her blue bra when she noticed Jemma awakening.

“I wasn’t trying to sneak out, I swear,” she explained, a smirk on her lips as she rushed to Jemma’s bedside and leaned down to give her a sweet kiss. “Unfortunately, I have to go to work. I want to see you again, though.”

Jemma smiled softly, her eyes barely open, before she sat up and picked up the closest piece of paper—a receipt of something she’d bought earlier—and a pen from her drawer, and wrote down her number, giving it to Skye.

Jemma reads the number in her own handwriting. She’s not proud of it, she was barely awake when she wrote it, but it’s legible without a doubt. And it’s her correct number. She reads again. Once more just to make sure. Four times and she’s certain the number isn’t wrong at all.

“I didn’t give you the wrong number. This _is_ my phone number, and it’s working just fine.”

Skye’s absolute bewilderment would be comical if they weren’t in such a strange situation. She takes the paper away from Jemma’s hand. “That’s not possible,” she says, shaking her head. “Are you _sure_?”

Jemma sighs. “ _Yes_.” And starts reciting her phone number out loud, slowly, bitterly, like a snarky 7-year-old. When she says the number zero, Skye raises a hand to stop her and then just facepalms. Actuay, she might have slapped her own face.lly, she might have just slapped her own face.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” she mutters, a look of utter disbelief on her face. “ _Zero_?”

She puts the paper down on the table in front of Jemma with a thud and points at one of the numbers. “This is a six, Jemma!” She says exasperatedly.

Jemma furrows her brows and looks at the number below Skye’s finger.

And curses under her breath.

Alright, it’s _not_ a six, but it’s hardly a zero either. The edges that should match to form an oval definitely don’t match; instead, the right edge meets the left side of the not-oval. Okay, it could probably pass as a chubby six, but it could also pass as a zero, and the fact that Skye saw a six is just a lot of bad luck.

“Are you telling me the _only_ reason you didn’t call me was because you thought this was a bloody _six_?”

Jemma is unsure whether she’s more upset about Skye misreading her number, or excited because this means Skye _wanted_ to call her. And yeah, she could apologize for her rushed, confusing handwriting, but having a silly argument about this seems so much more fun.

“Are _you_ telling me the only reason I _couldn’t_ call you was because you _can’t write proper zeroes_?"

Jemma tries to come up with a serious response, but she bursts into laughter, because this is just pathetic. It feels like some cheesy romantic comedy like those ones where the stupidest occurrences keep the main couple from getting together.

(No, Jemma doesn't know when she started comparing her and Skye's situation to romantic comedies. Get over it.)

"This is unbelievable," Skye says and starts laughing as well. "You know what the worst part is? This is going to sound really creepy, but I had other ways to reach you. For starters, I know where you live. I found your professional email address on the website of the institution you work at. I could’ve _called_ the place and asked to get in touch with you. By the way, you didn't mention you were such a well-known scientist, Dr. Jemma 'two PhDs and countless science prizes' Simmons."

Jemma can't help the wide grin spreading across her face. She can't judge Skye for googling her, really; she would've done the same if it was possible to find one specific Skye without a last name living in one of the biggest cities of the planet.

"I could've reached you in so many ways and I didn't because I thought you didn't want me to," Skye rants. "And it was all because of your goddamn handwriting!"

Jemma is just so ridiculously happy with the warm feeling spreading across her chest and it makes her so excited to be talking to Skye again and joking and also she really needs to kiss her.

"Well, forgive me for being half asleep when you left!" She protests, and they look like two teenagers having a fake fight and almost yelling at each other.

Skye flashes a dirty smile. "Were you tired because I kept you awake that night, huh?"

Jemma laughs, and the next thing she knows Skye is leaning over the table to cup Jemma's face in her hands and kiss her.

The kiss is much shorter than Jemma would like because they're not really in the most comfortable position in the world right now, but the soft cinnamon taste of Skye's lips and the feeling of her nails grazing the skin of Jemma's neck are enough to leave Jemma's heart pounding against her chest.

" _God_ , I really wanted to do that," Skye admits with a content sigh, her warm breath tickling Jemma's skin.

She sits down again and pulls out her phone, types up the correct number on the paper, and then hands the phone to Jemma. "Check it," she says. "I'm not risking again."

Jemma huffs out a breath and does what she's asking. When she's sure the phone number is right, she decides to add a picture to the contact information and takes a silly selfie.

"Done. Now give me a call so I can have yours too."

Skye presses the call button and, in a few seconds, Jemma's phone rings. She pulls it out of her pocket and presses the red button.

Skye gives her a faux offended look. "That's just rude, but at least you can't say I didn't try," she teases.

"It only took you a month," Jemma retorts sarcastically.

Skye huffs out a breath; her lips quirk upwards, and Jemma wants to kiss her again. And do other things with her but that’s not the point.

"It's never too late, you know," Skye says. "The way I see it, we have an entire month to make up for."

Jemma bites her bottom lip; the wicked grin in Skye's lips is intoxicating. She continues, “Tonight. My place. Netflix. Fluffy blankets and popcorn.” Skye crinkles her nose. “And alcohol if that makes us sound more adult than Netflix and fluffy blankets. Or we can leave the adult part for later.”

That sounds so awesome Jemma doesn’t even want to wait for later. This time she’s the one who leans forward and lets her lips ghost over Skye’s for a moment before kissing her.

They kiss for a while before Skye pulls away, but her hands remain on the back of Jemma’s neck. “That’s a yes for warm and cuddly movie night, right?”

Jemma just nods. Skye lets out a happy giggle before pressing her lips to Jemma’s again. They do indeed have a month to make up for, and Jemma eagerly looks forward to that.


End file.
